Ambience & Edibles

White Patchouli

Tom Ford's White Patchouli comes with a surprisingly subtle ad, which - while very beautiful as an image, left me a bit puzzled: the white porcelain-like bottle is sported by a very dark skinned female model. What is that suppose to mean? That the woman aspires to be white?!

Aside from that play on black and white, and taking a rather dark note and giving it a "white" name - there is nothing in White Pathouli to make me think of the full colour spectrum otherwise. I would have expected a play on the clean dryout note of some thin patchoulis. Rather, what I'm getting from White Patchouli reminds me a great deal of the mushroomy, berry-like ensemble of Black Orchid. If it was called "White Orchid" I would have been less dismayed at the contents of the white bottle, as patchouli barely resembles its sillouhette here. Instead, what reaches my nose at first is wine-y and resinous opoponax, berry notes and an overall fruitchouli nonsense. Let it sit a few minutes, and the more dry note quietly slithers its way with an ashen patchouli feel to it, but very plasticized and surrounded some other vague floral woods, perhaps rosewood. It's nothing offensive, but doesn't come close to the glorious richness and evocative mystery that so many other patchouli themed perfumes that I've described here before bring to the patchouli patch. The final drydown is a non descript wood with allusion to washed-out patchouli, oakmoss and musk with a masculine tendencies - but not what they now refer to as "unapologetically masculine", if you get my drift.